Tag Archives: dogs

well, the prognosis for darby isn’t great, maybe a couple of months. but, in the meantime we’ve found a way for her to get around at least a little bit to make her remaining time more enjoyable. her spirits already seem higher now that she can do some walking.

2014 is not the year of the dog, at least not in the house. at some point last night darby stopped walking. after a visit to the vet today it seems like the reasons are mysterious and will remain that way without invasive surgery. it could be a soft tumor on her spine, she could have had some version of a doggy stroke. it’s just uncertain. for now she is resting and taking steroids and anti-inflammatory drugs. if she’s not walking or moving around by friday morning, we have an appoint for a wheelchair fitting so that she might be able to move about a bit.it’s another poignant reminder that our dogs are older. darby is 11 and honey is 12. interestingly, perhaps zelda first noticed darby wasn’t feeling well when yesterday she brought darby her blanket and started covering her up with it. darby was still walking, but zelda was trying to keep her “comfy cozy”, just like we do with zelda when she’s feeling under the weather. those two have gotten along well ever since zelda was a wee baby. darby has been infinitely patient with zelda and seems drawn to her and her blankets and cushions, which we will use now to keep darby as comfy cozy as possible as we wait and see.

our dogs used to get a bit more attention here, but then zelda arrived and took center stage. that happens with pets, they are our first babies, then human babies come on the scene and the dogs become supporting actors. of course, those dogs continue to age even though our children are just babes. ours are getting on in age. honey is almost 12, frodo is 11 and darby is 10, almost 11.
i don’t like to think about our mortality of anything i love, but it really hit home yesterday with frodo. he hasn’t been feeling well and after a couple of days of not eating, i took him to the vet. all we got was bad news. he’d lost a lot of blood, but we’re not sure where it went. there are lumps and tumors, but uncertain if they are cancer. the options are all very uncertain.
today we wait for some blood test results so we can decide what to do next. we have decided we are not going to do anything aggressive, like get him a blood transfusion so the vet can operate and take out some organs. that’s too much for him. his health was ok, but not stellar before. the aches and pains of old age are present. of course as we weighed the options, the reality that you may be choosing between life and death for a loved one starts to set in.
i write this today because if the worst happens i won’t be able to. and if we get a better outcome, then i’m glad i put these initial thoughts down since i don’t like to think about death and probably won’t do so again until confronted head on with it again.
as for frodo, he’s an awesome dog. he’s our steady and loyal pup. we started calling him buddy after we got up to alaska because he followed us everywhere around the house. he reminded us of the my buddy doll commercials from our childhood – “wherever i go, he goes. my buddy, my buddy, my buddy and me.” so for now, we hope for the best and prepare for the worst. either way, frodo gets lots of extra scratches today and once again gets the limelight, at least for a while.